The Greatest Fear of the Nightmare King
by Not that way never go that way
Summary: Because Pitch is now struggling with his fears and memories of Kozmotis, something is wrong with the believers, and only Jack can fix it and help Pitch escape his self-induced nightmares.
1. Chapter 1

_Darkness. That's the first thing I remember. It was pitch black and cold...and I was scared._

_I didn't know why or what exactly I feared, only that I could feel it eating at my mind and crawling through my skin. At first, it was painful...then, it was intoxicating. The stench of terror that was not entirely my own was overpowering my senses and it felt better to retreat into the fears of others', rather than to dwell on my own. I found comfort in the power I had over everyone, rejoicing in seeing how much the fear would affect them._

_I kept myself busy. I didn't want to notice that I'd placed a golden locket I'd been holding into my pocket. I didn't want to think about when I found myself a nice, dark cave in which to reside, I'd placed that locket in a special corner of shadows for safe keeping._

_No. I would wander the world and strike terror in the heart of every person, without thought to my lapses of judgement where I would look upon the locket with a mixture of fear, hate, curiosity, and something else I could not identify._

_All was well, and I could run away so easily from my own fears...that was, until the Man in the Moon sent his "Guardians" to do his dirty work._

_That was when everything started to fall apart. That was when people stopped believing in me and stopped being quite so susceptible to my power. That was when children and adults alike would no longer fall victim to my fairy tales of monsters and demons._

That was when I no longer had their fear to distract me from my own.

_The Guardians had left me alone in the dark of my cave, only as soon as they had been sure that not a single soul could see me any longer. All I had left was my fear, my anger, this blasted locket, and my hate for the Guardians who had taken away __everything._

But that was a long time ago.

_I thought I'd finally escaped from my prison of nightmares, and even had the ridiculous thought that I'd found someone who understood, but now I see that hope is a notion that cannot be trusted. Jack Frost is just like the rest of them. He may have experienced some small drop of the pain and fear of not being believed in, but he has obviously not felt the agony of fearing nothing but yourself._

Now, I am once again left to suffer in the darkness of my cage. Sometimes, it's not quite so bad. Some days, I can even sense a little child somewhere getting spooked about the monster under their bed, and it gets me through the night without losing too much of my tired mind.

Today, it's bad. The nightmares have transformed themselves into endless swirls of darkness and glowing red and yellow eyes watching me calculatingly as they tore at either my body or mind, I couldn't tell. I've heard distant screams and quiet whimpers coming from the voice of a child, but they were too far off for me to cling to.

* * *

It's been nearly two years since I became a Guardian, yet still the other Guardians refuse to tell me who Pitch had been before he was the Boogeyman. They told me about their own pasts, yet would simply refuse to talk about Pitch's. Was it really that bad?

At first, I thought _'maybe they're still a little sore over what had happened during Easter'_, but now I'm thinking they might not even know his past at all.

I know this is a bad idea, but it'll be fine. Pitch'll probably be all bark and no bite at this point, so I'm not nearly as frightened as the other Guardians are about this.

Of course, I got about a million objections when I first suggested it to them, but I managed to convince them it would be okay. Mentioning the fact that even the Man in the Moon himself had told us that there was something wrong with Pitch may have helped. A lot.

The strangest thing about this whole situation isn't even that I'm going to go see Pitch Black alone after everything that happened, but the fact that The Man in the Moon had told us it was something only I could handle. What sort of things could Pitch be doing that only _I_ could stop? Well, no matter what, I'm much stronger than I was then, and Pitch is much weaker, so there really isn't cause for worry.

When I finally reached the spot where there was once a broken bed frame, I found only a hole in the ground.

_Brace yourself. Be yourself and do not let him affect you like last time. _

_Here goes._ I steadied myself and jumped into the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Pitch's lair was much bigger and far more empty than Jack remembered.

It was taking quite a while to find the spirit of darkness, especially when surrounded by shadow. It left room for thought, he supposed.

In all honesty, there were a lot of reasons why Jack wanted to visit Pitch. He'd wanted to ask him about Antarctica and often wondered how sincere Pitch's offer to him had been. He wanted to know if Pitch truly longed for a family like he did, or if it had all been just a ruse to get him to betray the Guardians, and, although he would not admit this, he wanted to be sure that Pitch was alive after what had happened.

Jack was worried.

As much as he knew Pitch wasn't good, he could still feel as though he was. There were too many times he'd seen something flash over Pitch's face that would give way to his humanity. He couldn't help but think back to the look Pitch had given when he discovered no one could see him anymore, or to the expression he'd had when he'd been chased into his lair by his own nightmares.

_That kind of sorrow and mortification cannot be faked, can it?_

Before he could answer that thought, he heard a pained whimper from the darkest corner of the room, echoing ever so slightly in the stone walls throughout the cave. _Pitch? _ He squinted, taking a step closer to get a better look.

It didn't appear to be Pitch, for all he could see was a lot of darkness and an occasional flash of something. _Red eyes? Pitch doesn't have red eyes..._

He took another step closer, poking his staff at it until the swirl stopped what it had been doing and dissipated to leave Pitch alone, some bits of it seeming to flow into Pitch's skin as though it had always been there.

Jack was taken aback by what was left. Pitch looked as though he hadn't slept in a very long time, and some areas of his skin and clothing appeared to have been clawed at. Out of everything that Jack had imagined seeing when he found Pitch, this certainly was not one of them.

_What was that thing? Why would it do this to Pitch when he was already harmless and defenseless? How long had this been going on before I got here? Was this somehow my fault?_

He got on his knees immediately and cupped Pitch's face, trying to shake him into reality. "Pitch? Pitch! Wake up!" He dropped the temperature, hoping it would be drastic enough to wake the king of nightmares.

Pitch's eyes opened and he immediately shoved Jack off him as though he was still in a nightmare and trying to get away from something before he realized who it was and his face softened for a small moment that didn't last more than a second. "Frost." He snarled, his momentary appreciation having been forgotten. Jack ignored this, standing up to lean against the wall to watch him carefully. "Pitch."

Jack quickly noticed how tense he was, sighing and sitting cross-legged on the ground by the wall in order to be on level with Pitch, who was currently still balled up in the corner. For a long while, they just sat there, both having a lot to say, but neither feeling ready to speak yet.

When someone finally did speak, it was Jack who'd let his curiosity get the better of him first. He looked over at Pitch's broken state pensively as he spoke. "So... what did that to you?"

Pitch left his demeanor as it was, resigned and resentful to cover up his fear. "Me. I did this."

Jack didn't know what to say to that, so he just kept silent. He'd thought that it'd been those nightmares that did it, but apparently not. After a little while, Pitch spoke again. "Leave." Jack chuckled at this good-naturedly, his eyes looking up from the ground to meet the shadow's._ As if I'd just leave Pitch alone like that, hah!_ "Um...no. Not gonna happen. You have some explaining to do and I have important Guardian business down here."

Pitch glared as menacingly as he could manage in that moment, but finding that it was a little weak. "I'd rather _not_ explain anything to you. So, what is it that's so important that you would come off your high horse to visit what remains of the Nightmare king? Come to finish the job? Have the Guardians sent their favorite toy to avoid soiling their hands?" He sneered.

Oddly enough, and despite his unfriendly attitude, Pitch had actually been quite relieved to see Jack again. He couldn't sense any fear coming off the boy, but he was a good distraction nonetheless. He gripped the chain of the locket in his hands absentmindedly. He knew Jack would not have come to kill him, but he also had to use _something_ to distract Jack from his current state of emotional vulnerability.

While Pitch was lost in thought, Jack took the opportunity to lean over and put a hand on his shoulder. "No. I came here because you needed my help."

Pitch scoffed at this, brushing off Jack's hand like it was offensive. "Help? And _why exactly_ would I need _your_ help?"

"Because you look like you need some fun in your daily routine." Jack casually smirked, motioning down to Pitch's unseemly form. "Besides, someone needs to keep you from summoning hordes of evil and taking over the world." He summoned a few snowflakes, purposefully landing them on Pitch, who tried to swat them away, growling unhappily. "So you're my _keeper_, then?"

Pitch stood, wobbling a bit, but trying his best to seem to have it together. "I'll know I have sunken low when I accept help from a Guardian who intends to keep me like a pet." He began walking out of the room, keeping one hand on the wall at all times to stop himself from falling, only turning back for a moment to speak as he left. "You gave up your chance to help at Antarctica. Do not think I will make the mistake of thinking of you as a companion again."

With that, he faded into the shadows. Jack tried to follow him out, but Pitch was nowhere to be seen. Well, that was that.

He'd just have to come back on a better day.


	3. Chapter 3

_There's something wrong with the children._

When they would leave the house to play in the snow with Jack, they leave their coats and shoes inside. When Tooth comes to collect their teeth, she finds that they've been losing them earlier than they're supposed to. When searching for hidden eggs on Easter, they look in high risk places. When they fight with the toy swords they got from Christmas, they're just a little too violent, as though they don't realize that they could get hurt.

The Guardians had consulted Manny about it, but all he would reply with was that they needed to focus on Pitch.

This was why Jack had to keep an eye on him. Everyone thought that Pitch must be doing something shady (he usually was), but after that episode last week, Jack was confident that Pitch was not to blame.

Jack would visit the hole in the ground once a day. Every day, he would think back to the _thing_ that had been clawing at Pitch. He needed a plan before he went in again. He didn't want a repeat of last week.

Sandy was the oldest of the Guardians. If there was any information about what had been hurting Pitch, Sandy would have it.

Today, instead of having another useless visit to Pitch's lair, Jack had gone to find Sandy. It wasn't difficult. Any strand of dream sand could be traced back to him, so Jack had no trouble finding him standing in the calm night skies of a small town in North America, dancing about sleepily as he wove dreams together, sending streams of golden sand through the sky and into the minds of children.

The sandman soon noticed Jack's presence, smiling and waving as he continued with his work.

"Hey sandman. I have to talk to you about something. Do you have second?"

Sandy focused on finishing the set of dreams he'd been working on, and sent them on their ways before giving Jack his full attention, raising a question mark in the sand above his head.

"I need to know if there might be another spirit at work." Jack began, "'Y'see, when I went to visit Pitch, there was something else there, in the Darkness, and it wasn't his usual Nightmares. I think it was hurting him." Sandy looked unimpressed, obviously not particularly concerned with the safety of a spirit who has nearly killed him twice.

"Look, I just need to know what it was. If I knew what that dark, red-eyed blob of darkness was, maybe I could get a bit closer to finding out what's going on."

Sandy nodded, creating a picture book out of dream sand and handing it to Jack, who looked down at the man in puzzlement. Sandy motioned to the book again before getting back to creating dreams, leaving Jack to his business.

Jack flew down to a rooftop to begin flipping through the pages with great interest. The book was titled "The Golden Age", and told of demons and fearlings from all over the universe being trapped in a cage, protected by a brave guard that the king had trusted.

It doesn't say how the Golden Age ended, only that it didn't end well.

_So, the thing that attacked Pitch wasn't a creature, but creatures? Fearlings and Demons? What would they want with Pitch?_

Jack got up to return to his frozen lake, needing time to think this out.

* * *

Pitch rarely slept. That wasn't anything new. Being the king of nightmares tended to lend yourself to having them. Today, he'd been able to fall asleep, but it was not something he appreciated. The dream was vivid, and he'd had it before.

He was somewhere dark, which should have been comforting, but it wasn't. There was a cage, or many cages, with horrible things locked inside of them, and he wasn't sure whether he was scared of them escaping, or if he was a creature that was scared of not being able to escape. He was tired. He wanted to go home to his dark, comforting lair, and stay with his locket, but his fears were soon realized when the creatures escaped their cages and flew at him in waves.

He opened his eyes, panting. He stared intensely at the cages hanging from the top of the cave in an attempt to reassure himself that the only nightmarish creature in his lair was himself. He nearly calmed down until he realized that he wasn't alone.

He knew who it was before he even bothered to look, so he just closed his eyes and scowled in annoyance from his place laying on the stone ground. "Jack Frost."

Jack was concerned, but tried to keep a light atmosphere. "Pitch Black." He mocked Pitch's voice playfully as he replied.

Pitch's scowl only grew in disgust. "You couldn't sound as terrifying as I, even if your soul depended on it." He commented in a growl. "On _'Official Guardian Business'_ again, Jack?"

"_No_." Jack replied sarcastically, perching on the top of his staff. "I just _love_ coming to visit you, because you're such _good company._" Pitch gave a resigned sigh, lazily opening his eyes to stare blankly at the ceiling of the cave. "What do you want?"

Jack hopped off his staff, leaning against the wall and putting his free hand in his hoodie pocket absentmindedly as he dodged the question. "Having bad dreams? Y'know...-" Pitch interrupted before Jack could finish. "If you've come to play therapist, then I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you. I'm not going to play any of your silly games."

There was a pause in which Jack didn't know how to reply, so Pitch took the opportunity. "If that's all you came to do, I strongly suggest you leave, for your own benefit."

Jack walked over to Pitch's laying form, sitting down next to him as though he hadn't heard a word he'd just said. "Did you know that you talk in your sleep? So, who's Emily?" Pitch's eyes widened a little at the mention of the name, it sounded familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

"I...don't know any 'Emily', now _please_ leave." He grumbled in response, unconsciously gripping the locket tighter. "I have plenty things pestering me already without your help." Jack raised an eyebrow, making no move to get up. "You mean the fearlings? They're not here now, are they? They faded away when you woke up."

Pitch snapped at Jack, turning his face to the spirit in a threatening snarl, the grip on his locket loosening intentionally, to avoid cracking it further. "They are _always_ here, Jack. They _never_ leave." Jack glanced nervously at the empty cages as the realization dawned on him.

He had to be sure.

He had to be completely certain. Before Pitch even knew what was happening, Jack reached out and took the locket straight from Pitch's hand, quickly opening it to look at the picture inside before Pitch snatched it back. It _was_ true.

It was the same girl from the story. The guard's daughter that had been left behind so that he could protect the Golden Age.

_That was Emily._


	4. Chapter 4

_Belief is such a strange concept, isn't it?_

_One may __believe__ in a Goddess, a lucky charm, or even in an idea about how time works, and whatever that person believes in soon becomes part of their reality. They will continue living their lives as though whatever it is that they believe is a fact. Am I here because I always was here, or do I exist because someone believes I do? For thousands of years, I have existed, and yet I have never been in a position as terrible as this one._

_Perhaps it is because I am no longer believed in?_

_I wasn't always the Bogeyman. I remember waking up in the darkness with nothing but a name. The man in the moon told me my name was Pitch, and I decided on the last name of Black. It suited me. People didn't start calling me the bogeyman until I'd been around for hundreds of years already- they had more creative names for me back then. My current state cannot be attributed to the fact that people have stopped believing in the bogeyman, because I was not like this before._

_Throughout all my time, even when no one had any specific fear of me, I was always fine because fear was always there. I have not felt someone else's fear in weeks, now, and I'm losing my mind._

_I can feel the awareness of my surroundings slipping sometimes, and I admit that I do not fully know what I do when I stop thinking and begin to act on pure fearling instinct. I think that perhaps the children have stopped fearing altogether. The Guardians would like that, wouldn't they?_

_They don't understand. Fear is what keeps them listening to their parents. Fear is what stops them from jumping off cliffs for fun, __fear__ is what stops the kids from putting themselves in danger._

_I pause to try to feel any fear in the air. Nothing._

_Nothing? No, that's...I've never been __completely__ without any...oh. This is bad. I'm fading away. If there was just one person in the universe who was scared, I might be able to cling to it, but there's nothing. Where there used to be constant whispers of each person's fears, there is now only my own. Soon, there will be no more Pitch Black and there will be no more fear. There will only be..._

Darkness.

* * *

_The incidents with the children are becoming worse. Kids everywhere are not using caution, and no one knows why. We've never been in a crisis this bad before. Two children have already died because they didn't listen to warnings, and too many of them are in hospitals for it to go unnoticed._

_The other Guardians gave me one last day to figure out what Pitch is doing before they storm into his lair and do something about it. _

_I thought he needed time, but maybe I was wrong. His condition has been getting worse every time I visit. I've come by maybe three times a week for the past month, but ever since I tried to tell him who he used to be, he stopped talking to me._

_When I realized who Emily was, I tried to tell Pitch, but he wouldn't listen. First, he denied that the locket was his, claiming that he found it on the ground in his cave, but then when I tried to explain what happened to the guard, he went silent, and has refused to talk to me since._

_I still visit, but he just ignores my existence. Here I am, trying to __help__ him, and he pretends I'm not even there! Today, I'm just going to lay it out for him. I'll tell him everything about the situation, and he'll either accept my offer for help, or decide to try and fight all of us...again._

_I reach the entrance to his lair, but there's something odd about it. Is just me, or is the hole slowly getting smaller?_

_That is probably not good. I don't know what's happening, all I know is that I have a bad feeling about this, and that I need to get to Pitch before it's too late. I jump down the hole and begin my search. Too late? Too late for what? Too late for me to stop Pitch from hurting the children?_

_No. I know what's been going on here, I just don't want to think about it. If the fear is disappearing in the kids, then Pitch must be disappearing as well. I can't let that happen, no matter what. I don't care if the other Guardians want to let him rot, he doesn't deserve that. He may have done some bad things, but he never actually hurt the children, and he doesn't deserve to be left to die._

_Not in this area of the cave. I'll just have to search the next._

_How long am I going to be looking for him? Is he even here? What if Pitch doesn't want to be found? What if Pitch wants to let himself disappear? What If-..._

_What if he's already faded?_

_Panic starts to run through me. Pitch can't die, right? He can't really disappear, there will always be fear, right? ...right? I'm just going to search a bit faster, just in case..._

_...There's only one area left that I haven't checked, and I'm scared. I'm scared for Pitch. I know I probably shouldn't care so much about him, but I do, and there's no changing it._

_The wind pushes me into the air as I fly over to the cages hanging high above. It's not likely he's up there, but..._

_One of the cages in swinging ever so slightly. It has to be him, right? It has to be! There's no where else left! I fly as quickly as I can, opening the cage as soon as I got there. It was Pitch._

_Well, barely. There are those fearlings in here, too, so I shut the cage behind me. They cant seem to go near the bars, and he might have locked himself in here so that the fearlings couldn't escape. __Even though the fearlings are in here with me, they don't seem to find any interest in Pitch, or me for that matter. _

___Pitch is in horrible shape. His robes appear to have been torn all over by claws, and he has scrapes all over his body. I kneel in front of him to get a better look at him in the semi-darkness. I was right. He's fading, but he's not gone yet. I can stop this. I can stop this because I've never been this scared before, not once, and that's what Pitch needed, right? I have a strong fear and I believe in him._

___It was actually rather good that all I had to do to keep him there was have the fear of losing him, because that was really all I could do at this point. I don't know much beyond first aid and I somehow doubt that an injured spirit is healed in the same way as an injured human._

___If I stay until he wakes up and then leave, this could happen again. No, I need a better way to keep track of him. I need ...help. I should bring him to the Guardians._

___I put his arm around my shoulder, picking him up and leaving the cage behind as I carried him all the way to North's. It took me a long time and I nearly dropped him a couple times, but I got by alright. When I finally got there, the Yetis almost didn't let me in. I walk Pitch's limp body into the globe room, generally ignoring the stares of the elves on the way, but pausing once to ask Dingle to tell North I was waiting for him with Pitch in tow.  
_

___It really did not take long before North burst through the doors with wide eyes, worry, confusion, and the obvious consideration that Jack might be insane written all over his face._ "You brought Pitch in here?!" _He stared disbelievingly as I carefully lay Pitch on the floor.__  
_

"Shh!" _I raised my finger to my lips. "_Don't wake him up. I think he had a bit too much eggnog_." I chuckled. North practically stomped over to me. He can be very intimidating when he wants to be, I almost forgot about that. When he finally cornered me and got me to look him in the eye, he spoke again, simply. "_**Explain**."


	5. Chapter 5

_Pitch hasn't woken. It's been days, and he's still soundlessly sleeping on the bed in North's workshop. When I explained the situation, the others were somewhat sympathetic to Pitch's plight, but obviously not ready to forget or forgive anything he'd done._

_I guess he did do some pretty horrible stuff, and they knew him for a longer period of time than I, but I can't help but feel like it wasn't really Pitch doing those things. North let him use a room in the workshop to sleep, but I don't know what good it's really doing. All he's done is sleep and I'm starting to think he might not wake up._

_But why wouldn't he? He has a believer, so he should be awake by now!_

_I stare down at Pitch's sleeping form from my seat next to the bed. Maybe I'm not enough. Maybe, he just needs more people to believe, or maybe I'm not enough because I'm not a kid anymore? There has to be something I can do besides sitting around and worrying about him._

_Wait, did he just move? Is he awake? ...I don't think so, it looks like he's just turning in his sleep. Still, that's more than he's been doing, so that's some sort of improvement. I hope this is over with soon. The children are still worsening, and even Jamie has been getting careless._

_My hand has begun to feel...warm, suddenly. I look down to find that Pitch's hand that had been previously laying next to his head is now resting atop my own hand, almost comfortingly. If it weren't for the fact that he's the king of nightmares, I might have begun to feel something, but if there was anything there, I didn't acknowledge it. _

___This is still Pitch. 'He's probably the bad guy, don't get attached.' or so I've decided to tell myself repeatedly._

___Still... he looks peaceful. Nothing like how he'd looked when I first found him. He's mostly healed up by now, and if I didn't know better, I'd say that he was dreaming about snowball fights and hot chocolate._

___Maybe if I just..._

___I iced over Pitch's hand, waiting to see if he would react. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long, because he immediately tugged his hand away and opened his eyes, squinting in his sleepy daze, trying to make sense of things in his half-asleep state. He looked over his hand for a small moment, quickly noticing the thin layer of frost upon it. "Frost..?" He soon came to his senses and realized what this meant, dropping his hand and finally acknowledging my existence._

* * *

Pitch bolted upright to take in his surroundings before settling down and glaring at Jack, hissing out his words as menacingly as he could manage, "Where have you taken me, Jack? What do you _want _from me? Don't you think you've beaten the dead _night mare_ enough?"

Jack backed off a bit, raising his hands mock-defensively. "Hey, hey, I just saved your life! A simple 'thank you' would suffice, but I'm not picky."

Pitch's glare soon became an examination of Jack, eyeing him suspiciously. "You can't possibly think that your ridiculous act of _kindness _is going to change anything. Why would _you_ help _me_?" Jack stood and walked to the window, watching the blizzard outside as he drew frost patterns on the window absentmindedly. "Because we're the same." He turned back for a moment to give Pitch a look as if to say 'obviously'.

Even though he knew Jack would not see it, Pitch glared at the winter spirit's back with contempt. "We are nothing alike."

Jack turned around and sat back down on the chair next to the bed, looking genuinely confused as he explained. "I may not be ready to summon the armies of evil just to be believed in, but I know a thing or two about what it feels like to be alone, Pitch."

"Is this you telling me you've reconsidered the offer I made to you in Antarctica?"

"No." He replied firmly, "I'm just saying that I und-"

Pitch interrupted, not wanting to hear any of it. "No. You _saved_ your family. When you look back, you have a happy little memory of rescuing your little sister. I am not some... _fallen hero_, Jack." He heaved a sigh and stared into nothing. "From what I can recall, I was not a good person." He'd remembered something he didn't want to.

_Stop. That wasn't you, it was somebody else._ He tried to block it out, leaving nothing but a feeling that lingered, like a bad dream that you'd forgotten as soon as you woke.

Jack's voice intruded upon the silence, stopping his train of thought. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I don't understand, but I still want to help because I know there is good in you. I think I know who you were and I can help you remember!" He exclaimed, perhaps a deal more excited about the idea of a good Pitch than the man himself was.

Although he'd been thankful for Jack's interference in the lair back there, Pitch really didn't want to stick around and start remembering _that _again. "I'd rather _not. _Now, if you don't mind, I would prefer to stay as far away from you and the other Guardians as possible." To confirm what this meant, Pitch pointedly reached a hand out to summon a dark portal, but found no reaction in the darkness.

Nothing. No shadows creeping up the wall, no darkness seeping through the floor, not a single movement. Anxiety began to cloud the nightmare king's mind as he looked up at Jack in question. "What have you done to me?"

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I haven't done anything to you, Pitch. What are you talking about?"

"My-" Pitch reached to his side again, as if trying to grasp something that wasn't there. "My shadows, what have you done with my shadows?" His eyes were wide as he stared at Jack, futilely grabbing at the air in hope that it was just a fluke.

* * *

((Author's note: I'm so sorry for this awful chapter. For some reason, my ideas are not writing themselves. I'll come back and fix it someday, hopefully.))


	6. Chapter 6

"How's he doing?"

Jack spoke quietly as he looked up at Tooth with concern, who responded by giving him a sympathetic half-smile. "He gave up trying to use his nightmare sand a couple of hours ago. I've never seen Pitch like this. He just sits there not responding to anything, it's like he just _gave up_."

* * *

_I can't use my sand. I can't summon my shadows. I can't make nightmares. I can't cause fear._

_Why am I here? Oh, of course, because Jack wanted to play hero. He can't just leave well enough alone, can he? There's nothing left for me here, he should have just left me in my cage to disappear._

_This place is blinded with wonder. I'm practically drowning in the lights of the Guardian's believers that shine brightly on the globe in front of me. I'm not scared. Not even a little. I __should__ be scared, I'm __always__ scared, but I'm not. Why am I not scared? I can't smell any fear in the air, not even my own. _

_Who am I without fear? Is there anything left? I must be feeling something, but I know fear and this is not it. Shouldn't I be angry at the Guardians for keeping me captive here? No...this isn't anger. This is something..._

_"_Not going to try to escape?" _Jack interrupted my thoughts._

_"_I don't see the point. I wouldn't get far. Tell me, Jack- do you always enter without knocking, or do you only do that when I'm involved?" _Jack laughs as he leans on his staff. _

"I thought Tooth said you weren't speaking." _He smirks. "_Am I special?"

_I roll my eyes. Not only did he avoid my question, but he's mocking me. In truth, I would rather not hurt my pride further by interacting with Queen Toothiana, not when I know I can't escape. It probably would have been best if I had avoided talking to Jack as well, but I suppose there's no point in it now that I've made my first mistake in responding. "_Perhaps you are. It would certainly explain your idiotic behaviour."

"Oh, my poor ego!" _He pretended to be wounded by my comment._ "And here I was starting to think you actually _appreciated _my good company."

"You flatter yourself. What do you want?"

_Jack's smirk only grew wider. He's up to something, and it's probably not going to be good for me. "_You want your shadows back, right?" _I stare at him in suspicion as I stand, just so I can loom over him menacingly. "_So you _did_ take them."

_Jack raises his hand defensively as he takes a step back so we're no longer in close proximity. _"Whoa, there. I didn't take them, I just have an idea on how you could get them back." _I stay silent, motioning for him to continue._

"I want you to become a Guardian."

_Jack watches me with a serious expression. After all these thousands of years of terrifying children, they want me to become a guardian of childhood, hah! All of the tension in the air drops away as I start to laugh the hardest I've laughed in the past 1000 years, even with all my maniacal laughs. "_Me! A G_uardian_! What a _splendid_ idea, I could go out and rescue children and maybe start a holiday to celebrate joy and sunshine! Oh happy _day_!"

_Jack said nothing, choosing to just stand and smile encouragingly._

_"_Oh, you _really are_ the Guardian of _fun, _Jack, what an idea!" _My laughter began to die down as I saw that Jack was not commenting or laughing. He was serious about this. _

_"_I know how it sounds, but just hear me out." _The young Guardian began excitedly._ "You need believers, right?" _I nod slowly. "_Well, we need the kids to take care of themselves, so I thought that maybe if you became a Guardian and scared a few kids just a _little, _they might start to use more caution! It's a win/win, right?"

_I lean back against the wall. "_What makes you think me scaring a few kids is going to change anything?"

"They're not scared of _anything_, Pitch. They're not afraid to get hurt and they're not afraid of the consequences of hurting someone else! They just don't have _fear_ anymore...but you can bring that back, right?"

_I sigh. _"Jack, the fear is gone. The kids aren't scared, _I'm _not scared, and I'm just a ghost without a shadow now. I'm hardly even frightening at this point." _Jack seemed to perk up, seeming to have a solution. "...But, _if we can get you some believers, you'll get your powers back, right? So what do yah' say? Ready to team up and strike terror in the hearts of kids?"

_He watches me patiently. This is ridiculous! Of course I won't! I would never 'team up' with the Guardians, no matter how weak I am..._

_Then again, I could always wait until I've regained enough power and betray them, right? 'Friends close, but enemies closer'? I don't see the harm in pretending for a while until I'm strong enough to leave and go about thinking of new ways to get rid of the Guardians._

"Alright."

_Jack's eyes went wide as he openly gaped. "_What? _Really?_ It's that easy? No strings attached, no conditions, nothing?" _I chuckle confidently. "_Conditions? Not a bad idea to add that. How about, the condition that I don't need to talk to any other Guardians, and will only speak through you."

_Jack raised his eyebrow questioningly. "_Why?"

"I hate them. Also, I imagine they wouldn't take...kindly to me, but they'll buy it as long as you're there to sugar-coat the situation for them." _I reach out my hand for him to shake._

_Jack looks down at my hand and back to my face a couple times as he thought, before finally taking it and shaking on it. "You've got a deal..." He suddenly tugs me forward using our interlocked hands, pulling me down and only stopping when our faces were inches apart._ "...but if you betray us and break our deal, I _will _leave you to rot and disappear in that cage, you understand?"

* * *

Pitch couldn't help but glance down at Jack's lips, looking back up to his eyes as quickly as he could to avoid getting caught staring. "Of course."

"Good." Jack spoke with an air of finality, but didn't move to let go of Pitch. He swallowed, his eyes wandering over Pitch's face before the dark spirit himself interrupted. "You're freezing my hand."

Pitch grinned as he watched Jack blush and mutter a sorry as he let go of him. Standing up at full length, Pitch motioned Jack to the door. "You may want to go confront your..._friends, _Jack. I'm sure they'll all be _delighted _to hear you've decided to recruit the enemy into your little club."


	7. Chapter 7

"Absolutely not." All but Sandy and Jack spoke in unison.

Jack had called a meeting with the other Guardians to tell them about his idea. It did not look like this was going to be easy, but he expected that.

"But why not?" Jack asked innocently. Like he didn't _know._

Bunnymund threw his paw into the air to make his point, "Are you _crazy?_ The last time Pitch had any power, he destroyed my eggs, kidnapped the faeries, and nearly _killed_ Sandy!" The sandman nodded with a frown on his face as Bunny continued, "You can't possibly think we can trust him after _that_?"

Jack looked around pleadingly at the Guardians, checking each of their faces to see if even just one of them would be on his side, to no luck. "Come on, guys. We don't need to trust him, I just need to test something! If you can just let him be a...a trial run Guardian for a bit, we can see if it does anything, and if not, we can just kick him out!"

Toothiana flew a bit closer as she began to respond. "Jack, I don't think you understand how it works. We can't just choose someone to be a guardian. They have to be chosen by the Man in the Moon."

North interjected, "See? Even if we wanted to help Pitch,"

"-Which we don't." Bunny added.

"-he cannot become a Guardian unless chosen by Man in Moon, so that's that. The discussion is over."

"But we need to protect the kids _somehow!" _Jack started to get angry. The kids should be their first priority, not some grudge the other Guardians held against Pitch.

"Yeah, and we are protecting them, from Pitch. He's dangerous and It's not happening." Bunny glared over at Jack as they both began to argue, Toothiana getting distracted from the conversation as she hurriedly chirped orders at her faeries.

North was trying to break up the fight that was beginning to erupt between Jack and Bunny, and no one but Sandy seemed to notice that the moon was shining a very specific light into the room. The sandman tried to get their attention to point to it, but, as usual, they were so absorbed that they couldn't bother to look over at him.

Well, he's just have to deal with it. The elves were wary of him this time, so he used his dreamsand to create images of ringing bells until they got the point and a few of them nodded their heads back and forth in unison, quickly gaining the other Guardians' attention. He smiled appreciatively at the elves before looking up at the Guardians and pointing to the moonbeam that was slowly opening up a panel on the floor as they watched.

Jack jumped away from the beam in surprise, his eyes wide as a crystal was raised from the ground. "That's happening?"

Before anyone could reply, however, the crystal began projecting a blue light in the shape of...Pitch.

The Guardians stayed silent as mice, none fully knowing how to react. Jack, on the other hand, simply raised an eyebrow at everyone's faces. "What? What does it mean?"

They all exchanged reluctant looks before they all seemed to agree and North gave in. "Fine. If Man in Moon thinks Pitch can help save the children, we'll give him a chance." He gave Jack a stern look, "But only one chance. If he betrays you, we can't let him walk free."

"Of course," Jack gave a big, triumphant, toothy grin, the little tooth faeries nearly fainting in excitement. "I think I know what to do."

* * *

_Jack decided to take me back to my lair before he would talk with the other Guardians. Such a shame, I would have liked to have seen the looks on their faces. He said that the fearlings that had been inside me are now locked in one of my cages, but I didn't really want to see them. I think I'm starting to get used to being without them. Were it any other day, I would perhaps not be quite so accepting of it, I might've even tried to cling to the fearlings like a child clings to their safety blanket, but now I can think clearly. I haven't been able to do that in a very long time._

_Yet, still, here I am, staring at the cage filled with darkness as I wait. This feels familiar, somehow. Like nostalgia, only without that repulsively fond feeling that it's associated with._

_I don't like it._

_I don't like the familiarity that is washing over me as I notice something glint in the darkness of the cage. I squint to get a better look, finding that the shine was a tiny light reflection off the edge of an opened locket. I know that locket. That's my locket. It must have fallen out of my hand when Jack liberated me._

_I need it back._

_I shouldn't open the cage just yet, Jack isn't here. I need Jack to be here, I can't handle them on my own, I'm not strong enough. Why is Jack not here yet?_

_I stare nervously at the locket that seems to be floating aimlessly in the darkness. I know better, though, that's not just darkness, and that locket is not just floating. It's taunting me. I can see the little girl in the opened locket._

_I certainly don't know who she is, but I have this odd tug at my chest. It's not a completely unfamiliar feeling. I can recall sometimes having woken up from a nightmare with this...remorseful after-effect. I was always too scared to look closely at it, but now the fear is gone. Without that fear, what's stopping me from finding out who she is? Why do I carry that locket with me? It's nearly laughable that I've had the locket for as long as I can remember, yet still never bothered to question it._

_It was like something had been keeping me from thinking about it. Some sort of mental block, set up by the fearlings, no doubt._

_This feels so...different. I'm not familiar with experiencing other emotions without the undertone of fear in the back of my mind. Is this how people normally experience emotion? They come and go within minutes, soon replaced by new ones. How fickle and inconsistent of them._


End file.
